The Heart of Leadership
In the corporate world, leadership qualities have often been defined with such hard-edged terms as sharp, decisive and goal-oriented. But lately, words such as courageous and spiritual have also been seeping into the leadership vernacular. Many companies seem to want leaders who’ve developed the kind of inner resources that can help their organizations succeed in an era fraught with challenges.
Consider the term courage. Some argue that this quality has become more critical than ever in a world characterized by everything from daunting global competition to terrorism aimed at business enterprises. But where do leaders go to hone this quality? “Courage is not something you’re going to learn by reading a textbook or by watching a movie,” said Morem Klein, executive director of the Courage Institute in Israel (“Strength of Heart,” 2004). The Courage Institute conducts a four- to six-month training program that develops participants’ mindsets through simulations, workshops and team-building exercises. Klein says the program equips leaders to face tough decision-making with an inner strength.
Another organization that focuses on developing inner resources is the Spiritual Leadership Institute in Sugar Land, Texas. It promotes leadership that has ethics, relationships, values and balance at its core, characteristics that seem more critical after the recent wave of corporate scandals. Founder Dan S. Wilford, previously CEO of Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston, is quick to point out that spirituality is not the same as religion. The idea is to help leaders create an organization that reflects spiritual values in its programs, processes and standards. “Organizations with spiritual leadership behave differently from other organizations,” said Wilford (Wolf, 2004).
The emphasis on qualities such as courage and spirituality are part of a larger trend: the development of emotionally-based “right brain” leadership competencies that can help balance out the more analytical “left brain” competencies taught in MBA programs. Deep listening skills, intuition, personal values and being true to oneself are the kinds of reflective behaviors that help leaders balance their heads with their hearts and stay truly connected with the workforce. Such connections can become even more important in a frenetic era of intense competition (Deemer, 2004).
How does a company move toward this more emotion-based leadership model? Rohm and Haas Company, a major player in the specialty materials industry, uses a customized behavior-based coaching program to develop “emotional competence” in its leaders, focusing on an ability to recognize one’s own feelings and the feelings of others, to manage those feelings and to channel them toward goal achievement. The model first gathers input through a 360-assessment and psychometric testing. Then it provides participant feedback to raise awareness of the specific findings and to establish trust and a strong relationship with a coach. Next, the participant and coach develop an action plan, backed by role playing, journaling, videos and other tools designed to build the participant’s ability to handle a variety of situations in a positive emotional way and to practice these new behaviors on the job (Wasylyshyn, 2004).
The U.S. Army, too, has built emotional attributes into its “Be, Know, Do” model. While mental and physical attributes are important parts of the Army’s leadership model, emotional attributes make up the third component. These attributes include such traits as self-control, balance and stability in demonstrating emotion (Campbell, 2004).
Other organizations have turned to external executive coaches to identify and develop personal attributes. One reason may be that supervisors are reluctant to give honest feedback, even at the executive level. Delivering candid assessments can be an emotionally draining experience so outsourcing the process to a professional coach might seem like the best solution. The problem, however, is that there are no required qualifications to become a “coach.” With entry to the field wide open, there’s an element of risk in hiring coaches for top level leaders without a careful selection process (Sherman, 2004). The greater risk, though, may be for businesses to ignore the importance of developing leaders who can draw on inner resources and cultivate strong relationships with employees, customers, shareholders and the community.
For more information on the Courage Institute, visit www.courageinstitute.org/
For more information on the Spiritual Leadership Institute, visit http://www.spirit4greatness.com/
For another article on the U.S. Army’s “Be, Know, Do” leadership development model, visit http://www.pfdf.org/leaderbooks/l2l/fall2002/army.html
Documents used in the preparation of this TrendWatcher include:
Campbell, Donald J. and Gregory J. Dardis. “The ‘Be, Know, Do’ Model of Leader Development.” Human Resource Planning, Vol. 27, Issue 2, 2004, pp. 26-39.
Deemer, Candy. “Bringing the Heart Back into Corporate America.” MWorld [American Management Association], Summer 2004, pp. 20-23.
Sherman , Stratford and Alyssa Freas. “The Wild West of Executive Coaching.” Harvard Business Review, November 2004, pp. 82-90.
“Strength of Heart.” Training, July 2004, p. 16.
Wasylyshyn, Karol M., Barbara Gronsky and William Haas. “Emotional Competence: Preliminary Results of a Coaching Program Commissioned by Rohm and Haas Company.” Human Resource Planning, Vol. 27, Issue 4, 2004, pp. 7-12.
Wolf, Emily J. “Spiritual Leadership: A New Model.” Healthcare Executive. ProQuest. March/April 2004, p. 22.
Consider the term courage. Some argue that this quality has become more critical than ever in a world characterized by everything from daunting global competition to terrorism aimed at business enterprises. But where do leaders go to hone this quality? “Courage is not something you’re going to learn by reading a textbook or by watching a movie,” said Morem Klein, executive director of the Courage Institute in Israel (“Strength of Heart,” 2004). The Courage Institute conducts a four- to six-month training program that develops participants’ mindsets through simulations, workshops and team-building exercises. Klein says the program equips leaders to face tough decision-making with an inner strength.
Another organization that focuses on developing inner resources is the Spiritual Leadership Institute in Sugar Land, Texas. It promotes leadership that has ethics, relationships, values and balance at its core, characteristics that seem more critical after the recent wave of corporate scandals. Founder Dan S. Wilford, previously CEO of Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston, is quick to point out that spirituality is not the same as religion. The idea is to help leaders create an organization that reflects spiritual values in its programs, processes and standards. “Organizations with spiritual leadership behave differently from other organizations,” said Wilford (Wolf, 2004).
The emphasis on qualities such as courage and spirituality are part of a larger trend: the development of emotionally-based “right brain” leadership competencies that can help balance out the more analytical “left brain” competencies taught in MBA programs. Deep listening skills, intuition, personal values and being true to oneself are the kinds of reflective behaviors that help leaders balance their heads with their hearts and stay truly connected with the workforce. Such connections can become even more important in a frenetic era of intense competition (Deemer, 2004).
How does a company move toward this more emotion-based leadership model? Rohm and Haas Company, a major player in the specialty materials industry, uses a customized behavior-based coaching program to develop “emotional competence” in its leaders, focusing on an ability to recognize one’s own feelings and the feelings of others, to manage those feelings and to channel them toward goal achievement. The model first gathers input through a 360-assessment and psychometric testing. Then it provides participant feedback to raise awareness of the specific findings and to establish trust and a strong relationship with a coach. Next, the participant and coach develop an action plan, backed by role playing, journaling, videos and other tools designed to build the participant’s ability to handle a variety of situations in a positive emotional way and to practice these new behaviors on the job (Wasylyshyn, 2004).
The U.S. Army, too, has built emotional attributes into its “Be, Know, Do” model. While mental and physical attributes are important parts of the Army’s leadership model, emotional attributes make up the third component. These attributes include such traits as self-control, balance and stability in demonstrating emotion (Campbell, 2004).
Other organizations have turned to external executive coaches to identify and develop personal attributes. One reason may be that supervisors are reluctant to give honest feedback, even at the executive level. Delivering candid assessments can be an emotionally draining experience so outsourcing the process to a professional coach might seem like the best solution. The problem, however, is that there are no required qualifications to become a “coach.” With entry to the field wide open, there’s an element of risk in hiring coaches for top level leaders without a careful selection process (Sherman, 2004). The greater risk, though, may be for businesses to ignore the importance of developing leaders who can draw on inner resources and cultivate strong relationships with employees, customers, shareholders and the community.
For more information on the Courage Institute, visit www.courageinstitute.org/
For more information on the Spiritual Leadership Institute, visit http://www.spirit4greatness.com/
For another article on the U.S. Army’s “Be, Know, Do” leadership development model, visit http://www.pfdf.org/leaderbooks/l2l/fall2002/army.html
Documents used in the preparation of this TrendWatcher include:
Campbell, Donald J. and Gregory J. Dardis. “The ‘Be, Know, Do’ Model of Leader Development.” Human Resource Planning, Vol. 27, Issue 2, 2004, pp. 26-39.
Deemer, Candy. “Bringing the Heart Back into Corporate America.” MWorld [American Management Association], Summer 2004, pp. 20-23.
Sherman , Stratford and Alyssa Freas. “The Wild West of Executive Coaching.” Harvard Business Review, November 2004, pp. 82-90.
“Strength of Heart.” Training, July 2004, p. 16.
Wasylyshyn, Karol M., Barbara Gronsky and William Haas. “Emotional Competence: Preliminary Results of a Coaching Program Commissioned by Rohm and Haas Company.” Human Resource Planning, Vol. 27, Issue 4, 2004, pp. 7-12.
Wolf, Emily J. “Spiritual Leadership: A New Model.” Healthcare Executive. ProQuest. March/April 2004, p. 22.